LINCOLN - A Lincoln organization has started a campaign to try to force a ballot vote on a newly adopted Lincoln City Council ordinance that prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

The council’s “fairness ordinance,” which passed last week on a 5-0 vote, also broadens the city’s municipal code to add military personnel and veterans as a protected class, and it updates several other definitions.

Lincoln's Nebraska Family Alliance takes issue with the "sexual orientation and gender identity" provisions within the ordinance.

Following the council action, they are now seeking signatures for their "Let Us Vote" petition in hopes of collecting 4,137 names in just a 15-day window.

The figure is equivalent to 4% of the last gubernatorial election. If they succeed in obtaining the amount, the fairness ordinance would be rendered unenforceable and must be either rescinded or placed on the ballot for a vote.

A similar ordinance was approved in 2012 by the Lincoln City Council as well as the Omaha City Council. It would have prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. However, more than 10,000 Lincoln citizens signed a petition in opposition and the ordinance stalled.

In a recent news release, the Alliance said that its "volunteers believe every person should be treated with dignity and respect, and are energized and motivated to halt this dangerous ordinance that would allow biological men in women’s showers, locker rooms, and restrooms.”

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